If doing one thing requires giving up another, then the expected benefits of the alternatives we face will affect the ones we choose. The next three sections examine these ideas in greater detail. They constitute the core of economic thinking. The emphasis economists place on opportunity cost, the idea that people make choices that maximize the value of objectives that serve their self-interest, and a focus on the effects of small changes are ideas of great power. Economists argue that individuals pay attention to the consequences of small changes in the levels of the activities they pursue. Individuals maximize by deciding whether to do a little more or a little less of something.Economists assume that individuals make choices that seek to maximize the value of some objective, and that they define their objectives in terms of their own self-interest.Economists give special emphasis to the role of opportunity costs in their analysis of choices.
Three features distinguish the economic approach to choice from the approaches taken in other social sciences: What is it about the study of choices by economists that makes economics different from these other social sciences? An anthropologist might study the choices of ancient peoples a political scientist might study the choices of legislatures a psychologist might study how people choose a mate a sociologist might study the factors that have led to a rise in single-parent households. This fact is not what distinguishes economics from other social sciences all social scientists are interested in choices. Economists study choices that scarcity requires us to make.
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